Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur, recently clarified his South African ancestry on social media. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla debunked the myth that he is of Afrikaner descent with a late-night tweet about his genealogy on Tuesday. Musk claimed to be of English and/or British ancestry. He made a comparison to the well-known South African-born author of "The Lord of the Rings," J.R.R. Tolkien.

The richest man on the planet is a confessed fan of Tolkien and frequently mentions the author's writings on social media. It was also disclosed that Musk's courting of Grimes, his ex-partner, was influenced by Tolkien's writing. Musk's past has frequently generated curiosity and conjecture. It has been underlined how misconceptions about Musk's background might make it difficult to comprehend his work in perspective.

The term "Afrikaner" refers to people who spoke Afrikaans and were descended from Dutch, German, and French settlers in the 17th century. Their past, which is entwined with the colonial and apartheid eras, has produced their unique cultural identity. English-speaking South Africans, on the other hand, claim British settlers as their ancestors from the 19th century and continue to have cultural links to Britain.

The well-known writer J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892. He was born in the United Kingdom to English parents and lived there till he was a small child. On June 28, 1971, Musk was born in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa. His biographer has extensively discussed his difficult childhood in South Africa, including his 12-year-old involvement in a hard wilderness survival program that Musk referred to as a "paramilitary 'Lord of the Flies.'" Then there are the stories regarding Musk's father, Errol Musk, and his purported participation in an emerald mine in South Africa. The tech mogul has refuted these claims on many occasions, expressing dissatisfaction with the "fake emerald mine thing" and doubting its veracity.